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Long story short: she was on the way from Austria (where she had been in quarantine until today) to Munich, to get tested three times there in the coming five days, starting today. Somewhere along the Austrian/Italian border (Vintl), the transfer we had booked for her (a minivan, her as only passenger) had an accident, a bad one, one might say. Sadly the driver didn't make it, and considering they hit a truck head-on, Bruna sitting in the back (to keep some distance) quite simply saved her life. Transported to the hospital by helicopter. Broken arm, two broken feet and an unknown number of broken ribs seems to be the damage. Which, considering the gravity of the accident, is barely short of a miracle. As for me, I'm at home in the Netherlands, which is where we are trying to get her as soon as possible (when medically allowed, of course). It has been a long day of back and forth contact with insurance and Brazilian federation and everything to see what can be done. But, again, the main thing is she's still with us.

after narrowly surviving the first round, the final round was easy and Iran qualified for the World Cup today for the 3rd time in a row. have to admit that looked impossible a year ago but postponing everything because of COVID helped Iran. I believe South Korea will qualify too in few days. but the other group is still interesting with Japan, Australia and KSA all winning their matches. interestingly Saudis are not safe yet despite winning 6 out of 7 matches so far.

If he went on a 15 minute speech in a 100 minute ceremony, that is already a human right violation

This just surpassed all my expectations. so just a small help to avoid confussions while watching their matches Goalies Jieruimi Shimisi was 2 days ago named Jeremy Smith Ouban Yongli born as Paris O´Brien Han Pengfei (born Chinese #1) Defenders Ruian Sipulaoer born as Ryan Sproul Jieke Kailiaosi born as Jack Chelios Dannisi Aoxibofu my favorite one born as Denis Osipov Liu Jie born as Jason Fram Zheng Enlai born as Ty Schultz Zhang Pengfei (born Chinese #2) Chen Zimeng (born Chinese #3) Yan Ruinan (born Chinese #4) Yuan Junjie born as Zach Yuen (Chinese Heritage #1) Forwards Fu Jiang born as Spencer Foo (Chinese Heritage #2) Fu Shuai born as Parker Foo (Chinese Heritage #3) Luo Jia born as Luke Lockhart Jian An born as Cory Kane Ye Jinguang born as Brandon Rip (Chinese Heritage #4) Wang Taile born as Taylor Wong (Chinese Heritage #5) Wei Ruike born as Ethan Werek Rudi Ying (born Chinese #5) - Best (at least most talented) Chinese-born Ice Hockey Player ever Yan Juncheng (born Chinese #6) Zhang Zesen (born Chinese #7) Zhong Wei born as Peter Zhong (Chinese Heritage #6) Xiang Xudong (born Chinese #8) Guo Jianing (born Chinese #9)

To be honest these two are not very consistent. I am not impressed by them to be honest.

Το πρόγραμμα των ελληνικών συμμετοχών στους χειμερινούς Ολυμπιακούς.

Wilfredo Leon inked a new deal with his current Italian club, Sir Safety Perugia... It looks he's going to get 1.5 million €/year for the next 3 seasons... where did they find all that money is a mistery to me... source (in Italian): https://www.repubblica.it/sport/volley/2022/01/27/news/volley_perugia_blinda_leon_triennale_da_1_5_milioni_a_stagione-335473888/?ref=RHBT-VS-I0-P3-S1-T1

Guess there was some room on the Canada jet too. At least this has once again showed us, that when it comes to the Winter Olympics, nations can reject, accept and rearrange quotas whenever they want, procedures and deadlines be damned.

Whaaat? That's a terrible news, I'm really sad to hear that. I hope our user @heywoodu was not in the same car. Please give us some more news, @heywoodu , and I wish a quick recovery to @brunamoura

OMG the spin. Team Canada has “received” four additional quotas. Sure.

I haven't been to Alpine Skiing location before. It's mountainous suburb of Beijing. Based on my observation of downtown Beijing, heavy snowfall or fog are not quite likely to happen. Heavy winds may be possible but I think it would not be heavy enough to postpone the match.

@Topicmaster1010's breakdown is quite right. I would say 7-8 golds are fair. 9-10 golds are possible considered host advantage. I voted 9-10 and I hope our athletes have a good performance at home.

Main Olympic Village (Beijing)

Anna Fernstädt will compete in Beijing this year despite being dignosed having diabetes just yesterday.....

In hopeless faith for also a minimalist Bach and the OC president speeches

I am still completely in shock and devastated by what happened to you both today, my friend. I really wish that this enormous pain and trauma will disappear as soon as possible and that Bruna will recover quickly and return as soon as possible to the normal life. The next Olympics will already be in four years, it will move fast, you will see, and hopefully it will be finally also without that covid, so I wish you so much that Bruna will be able to fulfill her Olympic dream in Cortina and that you buddy will be there as well to encourage and celebrate it with her. We are all with you @brunamoura Sending a lot of strength

I'm unhappy about J/R being on the team because of their... personalities, shall we say. But in terms of the sporting merits J/R when they have a bad skate are about as good as W/M when they are clean, so it's not like there was much of a case that isn't reliant on emotions for picking W/M. W/M are also not really improving all that much, they are clearly not a team of the future either (and frankly they should probably split and attempt to find new partners).

Ya, the period from three to one week before the Winter Olympics is always a bit of a clown show where at least half a dozen qualification rules are broken by IFs…

Breaking news: confirmation that the beds in the athletes’ village are *not* made out of cardboard.

accepted quota: Tereza Nová (downhill, SG, combination)

https://olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/athletes.htm

Let's try to break this down by event: Events where they should be the gold medal favourite (6): Freestyle Skiing- Women's Halfpipe Freestyle Skiing- Women's Aerials Freestyle Skiing- Mixed Team Aeriails Short Track- Men's 1500m Short Track- Mixed 2000m Relay Speed Skating- Men's 1500m Events where they have a good chance of winning gold (8): Figure Skating- Pairs Freestyle Skiing- Women's Big Air Freestyle Skiing- Women's Slopestyle Freestyle Skiing- Men's Aerials Short Track- Men's 500m Short Track- Men's 1000m Short Track- Men's 3000m Relay Speed Skating- Men's 500m Events where they have a small chance of winning gold (8): Snowboarding- Women's Halfpipe Snowboarding- Men's Slopestyle & Big Air Any of the women's short track events Speed Skating- Men's 1000m Wildcards because of home track(3): Men's Skeleton Women's Bobsleigh So that's 25 events listed. Short Track is very unpredictable though so they may not be in the right tiers necessarily. I originally voted 7-8 golds but now making this list I very well wouldn't be surprised if they won 10+ gold especially with home judging bias.

And a mixed doubles finalists as well

Snowboarding & Freestyle Skiing Slopestyle course revealed. The Chinese wall

Oh there is one mistake. Jieke Kailiaosi refers to Jake Chelios. Yuan Junjie refers to Zach Yuen.

Quite accurate!

That makes it exactly 1.4 Chinese people who care about it, is that the only one non-bought Chinese on their hockey team + his child?

For Moldova will be Doina Descalui (Luge)https://unimedia.info/ro/news/98995864bb50a833/doina-descalui-va-fi-portdrapelul-r-moldova-la-jocurile-olimpice-de-iarna-de-la-beijing.html

+4 for Canada in snowboarding. Final team size should be 215. @Benolympique

Moris Kvitelashvili (Figure skating) & Nino Tsiklauri (Alpine skiing) http://geonoc.org.ge/index.php?lang_id=GEO&sec_id=38&info_id=3839

U.S. gets another Olympic ski jumping spot Most notably, they're up to 4 men's jumpers, so they'll get to compete in the men's team event

It seems and are going to represent Asia at the 2023 World Championships. it will be a huge achievement for Iraq. they managed to get a draw from Kuwait today in a dramatic comeback and qualified for the 5th place match because of having better GD. BUT South Korea who was supposed to play Qatar today has something like 11 infected players and couldn't play today. they have 3 days to somehow recover for 5th place match against Iraq. but I assume that's highly unlikely. Iraq is almost guaranteed the 5th place and WCh quota

https://olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/athletes.htm All athletes information could be found on official website now.

Kolyada is replaced by Semenenko due to Covid positive.

Team Canada Men's Singles: Keegan Messing, Roman Sadovsky Women's Singles: Madeline Schizas Pairs: Vanessa James / Eric Radford, Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro Ice Dance: Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Nikolaj Sørensen, Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier, Marjorie Lajoie / Zachary Lagha

I'm in Beijing now, 15 minutes from the hockey venue. I took this job a few years ago with visions of seeing Team Canada play. Now....I'll be lucky if I get to see a bobsled session. I've been waiting years for this moment, for the whole Olympics to be in the city I'm living in, and it's just poof, gone. I'll watch it in my living room like I could have done from anywhere in the world. I know this might be controversial, but screw covid.

Looks like Vasileia Karachaliou (laser radial) will soon be competing for She is 25 yo and was 9th in Rio. Currently ranked 5th in the world.

Simen Hegstad Krüger has tested positive for covid aswell https://www.vg.no/sport/langrenn/i/KzkwKo/hegstad-kruger-smittet-av-corona-dette-er-ikke-goey-lenger

I'm completely out of the loop with these games so, sorry if this was posted elsewhere but Bruna is out, she suffered some car accident when traveling to Munich. If I understand portuguese correctly she's alive but broke some bones. The driver sadly died. https://ge.globo.com/olimpiadas-de-inverno/noticia/brasileira-sofre-acidente-de-carro-a-caminho-do-aeroporto-e-esta-fora-das-olimpiadas-de-inverno.ghtml

Yeah bro. She mentioned that she felt her body does not listen to her this season. Went for blood test before the Games and found oit she has diabetes type 1. She does not give up Olympic dream in Czech colors but she will decide the further steps after the Games....

A couple of our players had, according to very-brief informations from our federation, positive tests in the previous week...even in a hockey crazy country like the one I live in, it is absolutely impossible to find out which one...it looks like some national secret... need some James Bond help here to find more info The only we know, is it is not from players from CZE and SVK leagues (because they are still playing, CZE league has even a full match round schedulled the 2nd February and their clubs refuse to release players before...despite our and Latvian federation daily neverending demands and appeals lol) and it is not Marek Hrivík neither since the guy was Monday at the Presidential Palace making the Pre-Olympic oath... so by deductions a la Miss Marple, the positive one(s) should be player(s) from KHL and I can bet that it must be the 2 guys from Dinamo Minsk (Libor Hudáček & Patrik Rybár) since D. Minsk revealed a week ago they had 12 positive cases before their last KHL match... However if especially those two would not be allowed to go to Beijing...this would be a disaster, losing any name from KHL is already a huge problem for us, but the 2 named guys would be even worse Anyway our federation just briefly stated (Once again it was last weekend), they hope the positive one will have enough negative tests at time to be able to fly to China and if not we will have to call for player(s) from the reserve squad